Welcome
to the 32nd edition of Transmissions. A few items of news about conferences,
publications and the National Library’s Folk Fellowship. We also have a very
early discussion of Australian folk song by Percy Jones from 1946.

Thanks
to Mark Gregory and Brian Samuels. Please continue sending in your
contributions for the next issue.

Graham
Seal

AUSTRALIA'S
FOLK-SONGS

By PERCY JONES.
From TWENTIETH CENTURY
v1, n1, 1946 pp. 37-43

Courtesy of
Mark Gregory

THESE last few
years have witnessed a welcome and long overdue interest in Australian
historical research. For far too long, this aspect of Australiana remained the
Cinderella of Australian publications. It is therefore not very surprising to
find even knowledgeable people taking for granted the statement that
"Australia possesses only one folk-song, 'Waltzing Matilda.''' There has
been a great deal of printers' ink spilt over the authorship of this popular
song, but to my mind, this energy could have well been diverted into a much
more important channel of research-namely, the rescuing from oblivion of the
large number of other folk-songs which were characteristic of the pioneering
days of this country.

There will be
many, of course, who will question the importance of such research. It will be
regarded by musical and poetical highbrows as beneath their attention and by
historical scholars, enveloped in their fetish for superficial practicalities
as of little, if any, importance in Australian history. For many years, I have
tried to impress upon teachers the necessity of co-relating the school-music
periods with those of history, literature and geography. "Give me the
privilege of writing a nation's songs, I care not who makes her laws," has
an application other than the obvious. Not only can the songs of a nation stir
its people to the nation's ideals, but they enable other nations to learn and
appreciate the spirit of a country far more vividly than the mere study of
historical dates and events.

The real
national songs of the different peoples who inhabit the British Isles make the
struggles of those peoples more intelligible and abiding than a chronicle of
wars, while the "aisling" songs of Eire and Scotland tell us more of
what the Stuarts meant to the people than any dry text-book. Were there more
general love and appreciation of the art of foreign countries there would be
far less international hatred, because it is extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to have a lasting enmity towards a people whose art one admired and
loved. Hence, it is important that in the school-music periods songs be chosen
which will fill out and intensify the knowledge of countries which are studied
by the children in their other school periods. And so it is with Australia. It
is true that we are a very young country; that what traditions we have are not
very old, but precisely for this reason should we treasure and preserve what
little we have. Growth is gradual in every sphere of life, and in no other
sphere is this more true than in the growth of a nation. Everything that
contributed to the life of Australia in its early history is important, and it
is for us to preserve all we can of early Australia before it is too late.

As far as the
words of our early songs are concerned, "Banjo" Paterson's "Old,
Bush Songs," published by Angus and Robertson, is the most important
collection we have. The eighth edition of this work was published in 1932, but
has been unobtainable for years. Recently, "Australian Bush Songs and
Ballads," edited by Will Lawson, was published by Frank Johnson, but for
the most part this is a collection of ballads by later authors, many of whom
are still living. Of the eleven earlier songs whose authors are unknown, more
than half had already been published in the Paterson collection. Other than a
few scattered references in newspapers of one form or another, the only other
collection with which I am familiar is a very good series of "Australian
Bush Recitations" by Frank Reed ("Bill Bowyang") of the
"North Queensland Register." Some of these recitations were
originally songs, but many of these, too, are to be found in the Paterson work.
It must be obvious, then, for at least three reasons, that there is still much
work to be done in saving these songs. First of all, Paterson did not exhaust
all the shearing of bush songs, even of New South Wales. This was no fault of
Paterson's. As these songs were passed from one to another by word of mouth,
there was no other method of collecting them than to go around the various
sheds and towns and copy them down from the singers. It is not to be wondered
at that many have never yet been printed. Secondly, in his collection, there is
but one song of the "diggings." Although the atmosphere of the
various "rushes" did not provide the peace and tranquility of the
camp-fire or the farm-house verandah, which would be more congenial to song,
man's innate desire to record happenings in ballad form would hardly have gone
unrealised when there was so much of interest to record on the
"diggings." Here, then, is another group of songs as yet unexplored.

But more
important again is the fact that the tunes of many of these songs are being
forgotten. Paterson generally recorded the name of the tune in his collection
if it were a parody on a well-known tune, whether English, Irish or Scottish,
but where the tune was original or unknown. he was at the same disadvantage as
many others. It is simple enough to write down the words of a song, but it is
another matter to write down the music. Almost without exception, the shearers
and others who sang these songs could not write a note of music. The tunes were
learnt by heart and handed down, but no attempt was made to put them on paper.
In collecting these bush songs from various correspondents, the same phrase
occurs time and time again in their letters: "I know the tune but I can't
write music." There is only one way to gather these tunes, and that is to
have them sung and taken down by someone who knows music. Unless this is done
before the generation which remembers them dies out, they will be lost for all
time. There are difficulties, of course, with such dictation. There will be
variants of the same tune just as there are variants of the words. Paterson
himself was faced, with this difficulty and he followed the rule of choosing
the variants which best fitted the metre of the particular verse. As a rule,
this was sound enough, but in quite a number of instances I have found that
when the words were sung, variants which he rejected were better suited to the
song than those he chose. Although in the end, such variants are of minor
importance, nevertheless, they are a constant worry to an editor. With the
dictation of the tune a further difficulty is encountered-namely, that the
people who remember the tune are now fairly advanced in years and variants
creep in with the lapse of time. Moreover, with older people, intonation is not
always accurate and time-values are often difficult to determine. Lastly, every
collector of folk-lore is faced with the travel problem. In a continent the
size of Australia, it would be a full-time undertaking for several years to
comb the six States thoroughly for old tunes. The only completely satisfactory
solution would be for the Commonwealth Literary Fund to make a grant to some
person technically equipped for three years, or longer if necessary, so that
this aspect of early Australian life is preserved to posterity. In the
meantime, any of us who have the opportunity to gather any of these songs at
all would be doing a national service to retrieve some of them before it is too
late. Although I have not had the time at my disposal to gather as much of the
material as I would like, I have collected sufficient to form certain
impressions which may prove of interest.

THE MUSIC

The tunes to
which these early songs of Australia were sung fall into two main categories.
Many of them were simply sung to tunes which were not original, but were in
vogue in parts of the British Isles as well as here; others were original
melodies composed specifically for the new songs. These latter are, of course,
of much more interest than the others as reflecting the life of the pioneers.
But let us take the parodied melodies first. These are important, for they
indicate to some extent the proportionate extent of the various racial
influences among the balladists and their friends. The honours seem to be
fairly evenly divided between England and Ireland. Numerically, there is a
slight preponderance of English tunes, but quite a few of these were, so to
speak. common property, so that an accurate estimate is very difficult. There
are typical English tunes such as "So Early in the Morning,"
"Little Sally Waters," "It's a Fine Hunting Day," side by
side with drawing-room songs of the period like "She Wore a Wreath of
Roses." Among the numerous Irish songs there are, for example,
"O'Donnell Abu," "Irish Molly O," "Rory O'More,"
and "Barney O'Keefe," while there is no knowing how many songs were
sung to the tune of "The Wearing of the Green." Nothing pretentious,
to be sure, but they served the purpose. All the balladist wanted was a tune
that was easy to sing while he told his story. One rather interesting fact is
the almost complete absence of any Scottish songs. There may be some which have
not come my way, but the only one so far encountered is a rather clever and
delightful parody on "John Peel" about the Kookaburra. It begins:

D'ye ken our
Jack with his note so gay,

D'ye ken our
Jack at the break of day,

D'ye ken our
Jack though he's far, far away,

On a
ring-barked tree bough in the morning?

Most of the
tunes selected by the balladists were of the lilting type, easy to sing away as
the singer worked or sat on his dray or squatted for the night with a camp-fire
nearby to keep mosquitoes away. There are a few of the sentimental type of the
period, lyrics set to such tunes as "Ben Bolt," but these form a
small minority.

Coming to the
tunes that are original, we have a much truer reflexion of the character of
these songs. Some of them are, naturally enough, reminiscent in parts of some
of the simpler "Come all ye" type of song popular in Ireland. In
fact, a study of a number of the tunes written specifically for our early
bush-songs leads to the inevitable conclusion that our early melodies grew out
of the Irish "Come all ye." It was a development or an adaptation of
this easy form of balladry to new conditions of life. Melodically, the
Australian tunes were not as rich as the Irish prototype; their range was
generally more limited. It was rather in their rhythmic lilt that they
excelled. They have an ease about them that made them ideal for the singers.
These were not songs that were intended for the concert hall; they were written
to pass away the time of a night after a heavy day's work in the stifling heat
of the shearing shed; they were written for the "bullocky" with a
long road ahead and a slow team to drive, or for the boundary-rider with many
long hours and days, even weeks, with no company but his own. For these men
time meant little. Life was not the hectic rush that we modern city dwellers
know. In these original tunes of the shearer-balladist we find reflected the
easy philosophy of life that was characteristic of the wool period of
Australian history, the attitude to life that has been immortalised by Tom
Collins in "Such is Life." And this easy-going temperament was, in
its turn, but a reflection of the land over which they travelled, a land of
vast plains, of long horizons and sun-burnt vistas. The easy-going nature of
the people and the timelessness of the country can be heard in these droll
lilting tunes of the early Australian ballads.

THE WORDS

If there is an
easy lilt ,in the tunes of these ballads, it is due to the fact that the verses
to which the tune was wed, expressed the typically Australian attitude to
life.' In these songs the ordinary man's reactions to the life he lived is
described with simplicity, which was a characteristic of these pioneers and
with a droll humour which has come to be regarded as the typical Australian
form of humour. There is no doubt that these songs do portray the life of those
connected with the wool industry, with the search for gold and with the
pioneering on the land more vividly and certainly more intimately than a
text-book survey of the period.

Take some of
the songs of the shearers. Here
is one which summarises the life they endured, the competition for the title of
"ringer," the boy with the tar-brush in cases of the sheep being cut
by the shears, the atmosphere of the shed and the spree that followed the
receipt of cheques:

Out on the
board the old shearer stands,

Grasping his
shears in his long, honey hands,

Fixed is his
gaze on a bare-bellied "Joe,"

Glory if he
gets her, won't he make the "ringer" go.

Chorus:

Click go the
shears boys, click, click, click,

Wide is his
blow and his hands move quick,

The ringer
looks around and is beaten by a blow,

And curses the
old snagger with the blue-bellied "Joe."

In the middle
of the floor, in his cane-bottomed chair

Is the boss of
the board, with eyes everywhere;

Notes well each
fleece as it comes to the screen

Paying strict
attention if it's taken off clean.

The colonial
experience man, he is there, of course,

With his shiny
leggin's, just got off his horse,

Casting round
his eye like a real connoisseur,

Whistling the
old tune, "I'm the Perfect Lure."

The tar-boy is
there, awaiting in demand,

With his
blackened tar-pot, and his tarry hand;

Sees one old
sheep with a cut upon its back,

Hears what he's
waiting for, "Tar here, Jack!"

Shearing is all
over and we've all got our cheques,

Roll up your
swag for we're off on the tracks;

The first pub
we come to, it's there we'll have a spree,

And everyone
that comes along it's "Come and drink with me!"

Down by the bar
the old shearer stands,

Grasping his
glass in his thin honey hands;

Fixed is his
gaze on a green-painted keg,

Glory he'll get
down on it, ere he stirs a peg.

There we leave
him standing, shouting for all hands,

Whilst all
around him, every "shouter" stands

His eyes are on
the cask, which is now lowering fast,

He works hard,
he drinks hard, and goes to hell at last!

This song was
sung to the well-known tune, "Ring the Bell, Watchman," and from
practical experience, I have found it a most popular community, song with
groups of young Australians.

Just one more
picture of another aspect of the wool industry; it is a song that was very
popular in the early days judging from the number of versions that have been sent
to me, "The Old Bullock Dray." The bullock teams carried the wool
from the sheep station to the nearest rail-head or port. The life was hard;
always on the road, constantly faced with the problem of providing fodder for
the team each night in country where grass was scarce; and these were only two
of the bullockies' difficulties. There was always the problem of harnessing the
team each morning and, worst of all, there were the many boggy roads that spelt
disaster for the load. And when the dray sank to its axles in mud or marsh, one
can sympathise with the drivers who had good grounds for using the language
which has made their ability in this direction proverbial. Here are the words
of the song:

Now the
shearing is all over and the wool is coming down,

I mean to get a
wife, me boys, when I go to town,

For everything
has got a mate that brings itself to view

From the little
paddy-melon to the big kangaroo.

Chorus:

So roll up your
bundle and let us make a push,

And I'll take
you up the country and show you the bush;

I'll be bound
such a chance you won't get another day,

So roll up and
take possession of the Old Bullock Dray.

I'll teach you
the whip, and the bullocks how to flog,

You'll be my
off-sider when I'm fast in the bog,

Hitting out
both left and right and every other way.

Making skin,
blood and hair fly around the Bullock Dray.

Good beef and
damper, of that you'll get enough,

When boiling in
the bucket such a walloper of duff,

My mates,
they'll all dance and sing upon our wedding day

To the music of
the bells around the Old Bullock Dray.

There'll be
lots of piccaninnies, you must remember that,

There'll be
"Buck-jumping" Maggie and "Leather-belly" Pat,

There'll be
"Stringy-bark" Peggy and "Green-eyed" Mike,

Yes, my
colonial, as many as you like.

Now that I am
married and have picaninnies, three,

No one lives so
happy as my little wife and me;

She goes out
hunting to wile away the day

While I take
down the wool in the Old Bullock Dray.

The attitude to
the family life and the list of children's names leaves no doubt as to what
blood ran in the veins of the composer!

Such are the
typical songs of early Australia, and it would be a pity indeed if they were
allowed to perish. If this country is to grow to manhood we cannot afford to
neglect the songs of its youth. Although the two quoted are, perhaps, not
suitable for schools, there are others that are, and it is about time that
something was done to place Australian songs in the repertoire of school-music.
In the many youth clubs that have sprung up in the last few years, there should
be some of these early bush-songs in general use. For this reason, an edition
of these songs is a matter that merits the attention of all concerned with the
growth and development of this continent.

July 13–19, 2011 Memorial University of
NewfoundlandSt. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canadahttp://www.mun.ca/ictm

ICTM is dedicated to the study of traditional, folk,
popular, classical, and urban musics and dances of the world. Deadline for
Proposals: September 7, 2010

Conference Themes

1. Indigenous Modernities. This theme invites
presentations that address the impact of modernity on communities of
indigenous music/dance cultures in any country or region of the world. How are
contemporary genres of popular culture, theatre or film being used by
indigenous artists to express issues that concern them or challenges they
currently face? What aspects of traditional song and dance knowledge are being
either sustained or lost in the late 20th and early 21st century? What
factors are contributing to their cultural maintenance, change, or decline?
How is the production of media by indigenous musicians controlled, enabled,
and invested with meaning? How are new contexts, new collaborations, and new
audiences reshaping traditional and contemporary musical practices? Scholars
who submit abstracts for this theme will be aware that the term “indigenous”
is often a subject of debate and redefinition. Similarly, “modernity” is a
large concept that could include such things as industrial development, media
or technological change, globalization, and intercultural exchange as well as
deterritorialization and encroachments on indigenous land or lifeways.

2. Cross-cultural Approaches to the Study of the
Voice. ICTM will share one day with the Phenomenon of Singing Symposium, an
international event also taking place in St. John’s in July 2011 (http://www.festival500.com/).